The Way We Live Our Lives
by lilmisswritergal4eva82719511
Summary: Live. Love. Laugh. Smile altogether. One for all. All for one. Because we're family and because that's just the way we live our lives.
1. The Bones and Joneses

**A/N at bottom. Enjoy! OH! And by the way, Monty is Lyell's father. It says so in the family tree. So I figured I'll use him, even if he is literally **_**never**_** (as far as I know of) mentioned in the books. Oh, and yes, this is for the genre challenge, which has officially been posted on my profile.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own the ****Charlie Bone**** series by Jenny Nimmo or ****The Chrysalids**** by John Wyndham.**

* * *

The Way We Live Our Lives:

Live. Love. Laugh. Smile altogether. One for all. All for one. Because we're family and because that's just the way we live our lives.

* * *

The Bones/Joneses

* * *

**Laugh**

Charlie is only three at the time, and she's tearful and sad and bitter and all these other words he doesn't yet know or understand, but he thinks his mother's laugh is the prettiest thing he's ever heard.

**Vitamin**

Amy is smiling as her son attempts to be grown-up when the six-year-old tells her he took his vitamins on his own… even though she knows her mother helped him.

**Tintinnabulation**

"Mommy, I'm going to learn this word for my spelling test!"

**Crowbar **

Charlie is shocked when Grizelda tells the 18-year-old she has a crowbar hidden in the attic, and is even more so (as well as disgusted and horrified) when she also tells him to use it to end her misery.

**Apple**

Lyell knows his wife better than the back of his hand, so he knows how she'll react to the mess that previously was the kitchen when he tries to make apple pie.

**Run**

Maisie would never admit it, but she could beat anyone and everyone in her family when it came to a race.

**Wing**

Monty knows the second the plane is hit that he's not going to watch his year-old son grow up.

**Moonlight**

After Lyell kisses Amy for the first time, he swears her eyes are brighter than the moon.

**Curly**

'_He's only seven,'_ is the only reason Amy finds plausible as to why her son would ask her why a pig's tail is shaped the way it is.

**Panting**

She'd never admit it, but the first time Grizelda set eyes on Monty, she's, almost literally, breathless.

**Success**

Grizelda knows that there is _always_ a slight chance that the Bloor's and anyone on their side might win and every night, she hopes they won't.

**Note**

They're in the same college (even though she's just starting and he's just staying another year for no known reason) and just before he slips her a piece of paper, Amy can't help but think Lyell Bone's the most beautiful boy she's ever seen.

**Extreme**

Monty's a lot more fun-loving than he looks, so it doesn't surprise Grizelda when he doesn't realize when he goes too far.

**Shower**

It's drizzling outside and Amy's dancing underneath the sky and Lyell's trying to remember if he's ever seen her more beautiful.

**Piano**

He feels as if he's making his father proud when he performs (for the first time ever) in front of the school and it's confirmed when he sees him smiling brighter than the stars.

**Hat**

Maisie hates seeing her daughter heartbroken, which is why she's so happy when she sees Amy, a year after her husband's death, trying on all the headwear that had been in the attic.

**Joint**

His parents are connected in a way that Charlie just can't describe.

**Chew**

He can't help but laugh when his wife tells him "Lyell, there's a step in between putting the food in your mouth and swallowing."

**Monocle**

Grizelda is trying not to cry when her six-year-old son finds her father-in-law's eyeglass and tells him to keep it and never break it and is in the same position when she finds it thirty-six years later in the exact same condition.

**Persephone**

Grizelda is reading Greek myths when she begins to weep over how similar the story she's reading is to real life, and how some girl just stole her son away.

**Bandanna**

Maisie laughs at a picture of her son-in-law when he's twenty-four and attempting to look like a biker.

**Calculus**

Amy hates math, and gives her thanks to God when she discovers her father doesn't.

**Striped**

Maisie smiles at her two-year-old grandson's fascination at the different colours going up on his room walls.

**Foghorn**

Amy is in hysterics when she finds out Lyell is dead, which is the only way to justify her running into the street and calling out for him in the mist.

**Wash**

No matter how hard he soaps, scrubs, and tries, the stain of his father's blood on the shirt will never (mentally) go away.

**Patterned**

There are a million different ones to choose from for the new curtains, so Amy decides to go with her mother's opinion.

**Dress**

She made it in sewing class, he knows, and it's extremely precious to her, which is exactly why he doesn't want to ruin it, so Lyell decides to keep himself in check for one night.

**Barking**

The house doesn't know who's louder, the neighbour's dog or Grizelda yelling for someone to tell it shut up.

**Sleep**

They decide to camp out in the backyard one night, and as Charlie lays awake, he's grateful he didn't inherit his father's snoring habit.

**Cucumber**

Amy is four and her parents find it comical to watch her suspicious glare turn into pure glee as she puts the vegetable into her mouth.

**Steel**

When Charlie asks if steel is any modified version of iron, would messing up the clothes iron make it steel, his reply is "You can try and find out, but just remember, both our heads are on the line at the expense of your mother if you do."

**Lovely**

At eight, he's the most charming man Amy's ever met (so far), and she also wonders if she's biased because he's her father.

**Magnet**

Lyell's ten and learning about magnetic pull and he can't help wondering if that's what brought his parents together.

**Empire**

They're twenty-three when Monty jokes they could build a whole kingdom together and Grizelda bites her lower lip, trying to get rid of the tempting thoughts that the words bring up.

**Twinkling**

Lyell knows it's the prospect of eloping and how romantic it is and knowing that her mother is going to kill her when she finds out that makes Amy's eyes almost like stars in the sky.

**Bitter**

Grizelda and Amy have something in common: whenever they're upset over losing Lyell, they look at Charlie to make the bitterness go away.

**Lope**

His grandmother is twenty-three years older than his father, which is why Charlie is on the ground laughing at him when everyone but Maisie herself discovers that she runs faster than Lyell.

**Icy**

Lyell's glare is piercing when both he and Charlie see the store cashier flirting with Amy.

**Xylophone**

He's five and slamming on the instrument so hard, it hurts her ears, and yet all Grizelda can do is smile.

**Potato**

Lyell can't believe his mother when Grizelda tells him that his father didn't like potatoes, because he's seven and to him, grown-ups just _have _to like everything.

**Awe-inspiring**

Lyell can't help but laugh at Amy's face the first time he plays for her, because the widening of her eyes and the dropping of her jaw is just too funny not to.

**Cotton**

Some plants were grown for the sole reason of making cotton, and Maisie wishes that her life was that set in stone.

**Refreshing**

When his father came back, his mother was livelier than ever and to Charlie, it was a welcome change.

**Twisted**

It's definitely crazy of her, but when Charlie tells her that her husband might still be alive, Amy can't help but believe it, even if it is only a little bit.

**Illuminate**

Monty swears the first time he saw Grizelda smile, the whole world lit up.

**Shallow**

Amy can't help but smile as Lyell helps Charlie in the kiddy pool, and keeps a tight grip on the one-year-old boy.

**Electricity**

She's twenty and he's twenty-five and while they're running out of the building, Amy and Lyell can't help but snicker as they hear the owner of the café scream "Who turned the lights out?"

**Wistful**

When her husband dies, all Maisie can do is bitterly hope for her daughter and future grand-child/grand-children to not suffer the same kind of life, and seventeen years later, she hates that all her hoping did no good.

**Solemn**

Charlie laughs at his father as he explains: "Basically here, Sophie is saying," Lyell stops to change his tone of voice to grave "'you are apart of me now and you are closer than family and we must keep this secret together and do you like eggs?'"

**Family**

Amy knew the second her husband took her in his arms, that her family was finally complete.

* * *

**A/N: Voila! Chapter 1! Now we have another 16 to go! This is actually going to be a very short-ish story, and is probably going to be very easy for me to update… hopefully. Thank you super-super-duper much to Tassel630 for giving me the list and being able to make this story possible! Big smiles and hugs to you! Especially since I got smarter looking up a few of these words. If anyone else wants to send in a list, I'd be more than happy to take them. I'm going to be taking in 13. Anyway, that's all for now, bye!**

**~May**

**P.S. The one for "Solemn" is a reference to The Chrysalids. Who here has read The Chrysalids? I know there are a lot of different points of view on it, and honestly, I liked it.**


	2. The Yewbeams

**A/N is at the bottom. Enjoy! And this probably won't really have too much Grizelda in it, but she'll be mentioned once or twice… maybe three times. Well, the bigger the family, the easier this thing is.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own the ****Charlie Bone**** series by Jenny Nimmo.**

* * *

The Way We Live Our Lives:

Live. Love. Laugh. Smile altogether. One for all. All for one. Because we're family and because that's just the way we live our lives.

* * *

The Yewbeams

* * *

**Pen**

It's the scrawl on the wall that Paton's drawn that causes James and Solange to smile because he just couldn't use crayons, could he?

**Hair**

It's in this crazy up-do and everyone can merely gawk at the _thing_ on Lucretia's head.

**Glove**

Venetia smiles when she sees it on the ground, and when she takes it home, she makes a copy so precise that you wouldn't know they weren't part of a pair… except they were both for left hands.

**Raisins**

Because she's a positive person at the time, when Eustacia first meets Yolanda, she decides that her great-aunt is like a raisin; she looks all wrinkly and prune-like, but might be alright.

**Whiteboard**

Paton is five when he draws his family on the whiteboard; he's fifty-five when he's going through the items of the old house and sees that everyone but him has been erased off of it.

**Cloud**

When Grizelda says it's a duck, Venetia instantly has to deny it and tell her it's a bunny.

**Cheese**

It's apparently the first time he's eaten pizza and when Solange asks why he won't eat it, James sheepishly admits he's lactose-intolerant.

**Jam**

Daphne was surprised to find that she liked that red stuff on her toast; she liked it a lot.

**Cool**

"You'll burn your fingers if you don't let it cool down," Solange tells an impatient Lucretia when the girl tried to take a piece of the cake that just came straight from the oven.

**Wardrobe**

Venetia has the biggest closet out of them all, just because half the things in there are things she made.

**Explosion**

It's probably the loudest sound Paton's ever heard, and as he watches the glass fall, he thinks in wonder and horror that he created it.

**Smile**

It's one of those little things that James did that just brightened up Henry's day.

**Coupon**

She'd never tell, but she had her own little coupon book stashed away in the darkest corner in of her room that _no_ _one_ must _ever_ find.

**Shoes**

After a million "I like these ones," Grace needs to tell 4-year-old Daphne to just _pick_ a pair.

**Magazine**

"It's all gossipy nonsense," Lucretia tells Venetia; Venetia doesn't look up as she says "Go read a newspaper then."

**Spin**

Eustacia almost gets a whiplash from the turn, but it's worth it when she sees the look on her sister's face.

**Drier**

Daphne knows there's something wrong with her the second she finishes drinking seven glasses of water and her throat is drier than it was before.

**Keys**

Paton sees them and is horrified he realizes Eustacia is the one who's driving.

**Passport**

Grizelda looks at the pamphlet in her hand and then at her youngest sister and thanks Venetia for helping her 'escape.'

**Banana**

It's amazing how Yorath always _knows_ exactly what Yolanda needs at the moment, like bananas for Manley's cake.

**Peace**

That's all she's ever wanted for her children; the second Yolanda pushes her, Solange knows it won't happen.

**Pickles**

All Eustacia says is "I thought they were cucumbers!"

**Sarcasm**

"It's fine really, you just ruined any chance I ever had at this thing that I've been working toward my whole life and because of it, I'm probably going to end up being some dragon-lady at some horrible high-class school full of snobs, but that's really alright," is what Lucretia tells her sisters so smoothly, it seemed like she actually did mean it… until they saw her angry face.

**Dog**

Henry always wanted a pet and it seemed like the perfect one; and so the 3-year-old played with it and took care of it and made it his best friend, even if it was just a picture.

**Suitcase**

Venetia stopped packing the suitcase for a second to think about what she was actually doing; she started up again when she realized that even with the consequences, she was still going to do it anyway.

**Iguana**

It's Manley's favourite animal, which is why Grace works so hard to make the unsalvageable paper _thing_ as much like one as possible.

**Talk**

It's the words the two boys never wanted to hear, but they did anyway: "James, Henry, you won't be playing with Daphne anymore."

**Homework**

Paton's grades are a result of the fact he is a child who cannot stand to sit still for more than a few seconds, so he can never sit down long enough to do his work; yet somehow he does miraculously on all his assignments.

**Hungry**

She's looking at the birds, who are all so free, yet they have nothing, and she drops the bread on the ground and watches as they all come flocking and she's glad that she's done some good in her life, even though it might not last.

**Europe**

It was always Eustacia's dream to travel all of Europe, but she knew that as long as she lived in Yewbeam Castle, she'd never be able to.

**Violin**

Yolanda loved to play, but she'd keep that her secret.

**Sight**

Daphne's a perceptive child, which is why the second she can't see anything, she knows it's all over and she just hopes that her brothers aren't looking.

**Norway**

She chooses it because it's far away, and yet still, after everything, it just isn't far enough away, now is it?

**Love**

When Paton is fifteen, he tells his eldest sister that he's fallen in love, and he asks her if she knows what it feels like; she stops to think for a second – think about the warmth and the sweetness when he was around and the bitterness now that he's not and the bright smiles she had with him and the numbness when she found out he died – and then Grizelda answers "No."

**Camel**

One of his leads led him to Egypt, where he befriended a camel that wouldn't exactly leave him alone.

**Dragon**

Lucretia knew that she was right; she ended up a dragon-lady.

**Shiny**

"It's so pretty," Yolanda told Manley in awe as she held the metallic pencil crayon in her hand.

**Princess**

When she was young, she thought she was meant to be a princess; now that's she older, she knows that fairytales aren't real.

**Blue**

James was different than most Yewbeams; he liked blue better than red.

**Magician**

It's all just a fancy magic show in Grace's mind; only when she finds out her daughter-in-law had died does she realize not all the magicians are exactly friendly.

**Magnolia**

Yolanda thinks of her great-nieces as magnolias – soft and sweet and delicate – which is why she needs to pluck their petals and make them stronger; after all, they _will_ thank her for this, one day.

**Cardigan**

James is proud when he gives Solange the sweater he made himself… even if one of the arms was coming out of the neckline.

**Kangaroo**

A picture's worth a thousand words, but the one of her older sister with a joey leaves Paton speechless.

**Soon**

Yorath knew the end was soon, but it was never, ever, _ever_ soon enough.

**Socks**

It's the pair Henry wore the day he disappeared, and James kept them with him, just like he did the marbles.

**Neon**

Solange says she likes it best because of how bright it is.

**Bunny**

James decided that, after going to the petting zoo, he was _never_ going to go near rabbits _ever_ again.

**Baby**

Yolanda sees her brother and her sister-in-law holding their little Henry in their arms and pretends not to be upset that she'll never have one of her own.

**Leprechaun**

It's this little toy that Manley _always_ kept with him, even when they buried him.

**Family**

It's broken up, and Paton's the last to go, and then he's in this place that's not Heaven or Hell and it's just all of them there, and even after everything, he can't be happier to see his family.

* * *

**A/N: ACK!THISONEWASSODIFFICULT!'TFIGUREOUTWHATTODO!**

… **Just thought I'd get that out there. :D Then I got a new list and it was a lot easier.**

**So, I'd like to thank Oujdagirl for the list. It was definitely fun to do, since the Yewbeams have such an interesting family dynamic. I'm still open for lists, if anyone wants to pass them on. The amount I need is 13. They are 49 words, none of them being "family," and I will use them to write about the next family in line.**

**Also, I hope to update this every three days. My cousin, who we shall know as Jade, gave me the idea. And it worked out pretty perfectly, too; seeing as because of that, the story will be completed August 17****th****, and I'm writing about 17 families.**

**Anyway, bye-bye for now!**

**~May**


	3. The Tollys and Ingledews

**A/N at the bottom. Enjoy! Btw, if it's a Nancy – Emma interaction, it's probably Nancy the duck! :D Yes, I think Emma turns into a duck and talks to her pet. Sue me.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own the ****Charlie Bone**** series by Jenny Nimmo.**

* * *

The Way We Live Our Lives:

Live. Love. Laugh. Smile altogether. One for all. All for one. Because we're family and because that's just the way we live our lives.

* * *

The Tollys/Ingledews

* * *

**It**

They play the game the whole afternoon, and it merely started with Emma's eyes sparkling as she poked her aunt in the shoulder and yelled "You're it!"

**Shirt**

It's the first gift Emma gives to Julia, and it warms her heart, because she's just so much like Nancy.

**Elf**

The first thought Mostyn has when he sees Nancy is _'She's so small, she could be an elf.'_

**Onion**

"Blah," is what Nancy tells their mother while Julia laughs when they are presented with the vegetable.

**Two**

It's when Emma wants to understand what Nancy's saying that she turns into a duck and suddenly, they're two of a kind.

**Now**

This is the moment it's over for him, and Mostyn just wishes he could have gotten to know Emma.

**Pop**

It's incredibly loud, and all she offers as an explanation is "I wanted to surprise you."

**White**

Right when the bells ring, Emma sees everything like a blank canvas, and then she sees her and her parents before all the other flashes she has.

**Done**

Julia was finished with everything, including hope, until she found out that Emma might have been out there.

**One**

With Nancy around, Julia was never alone; when she died, Julia was suddenly just one person again, and she couldn't figure out how to be.

**Pants**

They were Mostyn's favourite pair, but Nancy decided, they just had to go.

**Monster**

It's the first night Emma stays, and she wakes up with nightmares of the monsters she used to be with taking her away and Julia comforts her because no one is ever taking her away again.

**Kill**

Sometimes Julia thinks Nancy killed Mostyn and that he really just died of heartbreak that's been there too long.

**Buy**

They went shopping together for the first time, and Nancy's not sure whether she's happy or not when she realizes Mostyn is as avid as a shopper as she is.

**Paper**

There's a stack on floor that Julia and Mostyn never could read; they were Nancy's last words, and they were afraid of what they would say.

**Get**

They are so many meanings for the word; it makes Emma's head spin, so she wonders if ducks understand these things better and resolves to ask Nancy.

**Mine**

As much as they loved each other, there were times Julia just wanted to leave Nancy in a coal mine.

**Black**

It was never Mostyn's favourite colour, but there were times when he thought that the thoughts it brought on – dark and neutral – were the ones that described him best.

**Hat**

He didn't like hats much, but Mostyn decided that, like everything else, Nancy had a way of changing that.

**Television**

Julia and Emma immediately discovered they had one thing in common; they didn't like television very much.

**Purple**

Nancy was always flocking about, telling her sister that it looked great on Julia.

**Match**

They never tried to, but it was some weird sister-telepathy that Nancy and Julia always matched.

**Red**

It's a powerful colour, and Emma hates it because it makes her feel weak.

**Socks**

They took classes to knit together, and this was their outcome; they were actually quite proud of it.

**Plastic**

It's not exactly the best material for paintbrushes, but Emma decides they will do, for Auntie Julia's sake.

**Share**

It was one thing they always had together; the pain of losing Nancy.

**Door**

Emma never bothered to tell her aunt that she was wrong; Nancy actually _knocked_ on the door before waddling to their yard.

**Water**

Emma discovers that, just like her, her mother couldn't swim.

**Raisins**

She doesn't like them at all, and neither does he; Nancy's glad her sister and her husband can agree on something.

**Watch**

She just stared, because Julia just couldn't get over how _alike_ Emma and Nancy were.

**Closed**

The doors closed, but Julia still _knows_, so she goes outside to help the bird because Julia knows, one day, it might be Emma.

**Windows**

There's so many sills she can land on, but chooses to look through the one with a lot of books and she sees a girl with a woman, and the nameless duck watches them for the rest of day.

**At**

It's a day where Nancy just wants to bug Mostyn with all these random facts that she says "Did you know 'A-t' is the atomic name for astatine?"

**Win**

Skating comes naturally to Emma, because it's being free like a bird, and even though she doesn't like being cocky, she's happy she wins the competition, but not really surprised.

**Sun**

Nancy was a child who always belonged outside in the sunshine; and that never changed, no matter how old she got.

**Belt**

After the 'incident,' Julia's afraid of belts until Emma knits her one and it's even better than the other one.

**Harmony**

Nancy decided there might as well have been bells ringing and a choir singing whenever she was with Mostyn.

**Bag**

Emma doesn't know what she'll do if Nancy ever gets lost; so she decides to make a little purse thing that Nancy is _always_ to keep with her.

**Bonus**

Julia's happy with adding the duck into the family because with someone who looks like her sister in the house and now someone with the same name, it's almost like having Nancy around again.

**Bucket**

Emma finds a pail in the backyard and decides that until they can get anything better, Nancy will stay here.

**Sale**

When Julia goes shopping with Nancy and Mostyn for the first time, she's terrified; the second time, she's worse off because there's a sale going on.

**On**

"Can someone _please_ turn the light off?"

**Aqua**

It's something they all share: they love the colour.

**Book**

Emma finds her mother's diary, thinks she probably shouldn't read it, and opens the first page anyway; when she's done, she feels like she knows her parents and her aunt better.

**Fruit**

When Emma first sees Nancy and brings her inside, the first thing she does is feed her strawberries and bananas and kiwi.

**Seed**

Nancy and Julia decide that they both love gardening; their parents watch as the two girls spend hours outside, planting and flicking seeds at each other.

**Cap**

Mostyn is actually quite embarrassed by the fact that he can't full the bottle cap off the bottle, but he'd never admit it to anyone, least of all his wife and her sister.

**Page**

Mostyn knows it silly, but he leaves a piece of paper with invisible ink to Julia and tells her if she ever meets Emma, she _must_ give it to her.

**Cross**

The first time Nancy and Mostyn cross paths, it's on a crosswalk.

**Family**

Emma decides that even if she never did get to meet her parents, Auntie Julia was enough family for her… and of course, Nancy the duck.

* * *

**A/N: Okay, so I know this time, some of the words are different. That's because the person who made them (the wonderful Jackie who I mentioned in "Phone Conversations and Understanding Gut Feelings") was watching TV when she made the list, so she got the words from there, from my understanding. But it was a lot of fun, and surprisingly easy to write, up until the last the last ten. So thank you Jackie. :) I like to think of this as a test of my imagination and creativity. How would you score it?**

**Also, "White" is a reference to Tolly Twelve Bells and "Done" meant Julia was mentally done with everything. Just wanted to put that out there because I re-read them and I was confused myself until I finally remembered. :$**

**So, the list count is down to 12, possibly 11. I'll find out by Tuesday, aka when I'm posting this, aka today. And yeah, that's all for now. Bye!**

**~May**

**P.S. to Jackie – I added Science in this. I know, ew. :| LOL :P**


	4. The Gunns

**A/N at the bottom! Enjoy! Btw, Mavra, Floyd, Foster, Frazer, Minette, and Clement aren't OC's… they're just characters in the books that don't have names. Mavra and Minette are Fidelio's sisters; Floyd, Foster, and Frazer are his brother's; and Clement is his dad. (Btw, Foster and Frazer are twins. And from oldest to youngest, in my head, it's Felix, Mavra, Floyd, Fidelio, Foster, Frazer, Minette, and Mimi. It's mostly Fido, Felix, and Mimi, though.)**

**Disclaimer: I do not own the ****Charlie Bone**** series by Jenny Nimmo.**

* * *

The Way We Live Our Lives:

Live. Love. Laugh. Smile altogether. One for all. All for one. Because we're family and because that's just the way we live our lives.

* * *

The Gunns

* * *

**Laugh**

Out of every sound in the house, it is, by far, the sweetest.

**Vitamin**

Everyone knows the only reason Mimi eats the One-A-Day vitamin is because it's a sour gummy and nobody really minds.

**Tintinnabulation**

Felix can't tell if the ringing in his head is from while he's playing onstage and the roaring of the crowd, or from after, when he somehow falls headfirst on the floor.

**Crowbar**

Foster is frantic when he asks his twin what to do with the object.

**Apple**

Minette giggles at Fidelio's drawing of a pear, and laughs even harder when she discovers it's not.

**Run**

Everyone knows Frazer Gunn's the fastest kid in fifth grade, and for him, it just isn't enough yet.

**Wing**

When every one of his children expressed an interest in music, Clement felt like he was almost taking each of them under his wing.

**Moonlight**

The night Mavra finds out, her smile is brighter than the sky outside.

**Curly**

It was decidedly quite obvious that curly hair was a trait every Gunn child had to inherit.

**Panting**

Floyd is speaking a mile a minute and by the time he's done, his siblings aren't surprised he's practically gasping for air.

**Success**

Chloe can't stop the tears from coming when she receives the letter, because she just _knew_ Fidelio was going to be the one to make a name for himself.

**Note**

Mimi can't be any prouder when she, out of everyone in her choir, hits the high F, and neither can anyone else in her family.

**Extreme**

The boys know that they're being drastic, but _nobody_ is allowed to break any of their sister's hearts and get away with it.

**Shower**

Mimi isn't sure what's more embarrassing; that she forgot her towel, or that she realizes, after she calls out for one of her sisters or her mother to get it, that the only other occupants in her house are her brothers.

**Piano**

No matter what any of them thought, Chloe was better at it than her husband and any of her children.

**Hat**

Felix wasn't sure how long he could deal with Mavra's constantly changing mind as to which one was best.

**Joint**

The second he put the bow to the violin, Fidelio instantly felt as if he and the instrument were one being.

**Chew**

Out of everyone, Mimi's the most perceptive, so when she meets that girl Fidelio starts to date, Mimi's the only one who knew she was going to chew him up and spit him out.

**Monocle**

The twins never meant to break it.

**Persephone**

Fidelio could only glare at the wall when Mimi was turned around and curse at how some myths taught children that it was okay not to eat certain foods so they don't end up tied to Hades and the Underworld.

**Bandanna**

It's a gift from both Foster and Frazer and they only hope Minette will find some use for it, because with her, they could never be so sure.

**Calculus**

Fidelio can't help but rub in that he's better at math than his older siblings.

**Striped**

The first time Minette sees a zebra, she instantly turns to her brother and cries "Look, Floyd! It's so pretty!"

**Foghorn**

Fidelio laughs at his sister's antics when Mimi hears the words wrong and asks why there's a special horn for frogs.

**Wash**

Because the first one is obvious, Chloe's second thought as she sees her son fall is that the stain's not going to come out.

**Patterned**

Felix is three when he's in the store with his mother and screams "Look at all the pretty colours!"

**Dress**

The first time her brothers see Mimi in a dress, they all have the same reaction: "Are you sure you should be wearing that?"

**Barking**

Because they're boys and they're seven, Mavra doesn't have the heart to tell Foster and Frazer that Pudding can't bark, no matter how hard they try and make her.

**Sleep**

Every night, Felix (and Fidelio, if he was home) would sing Mimi a lullaby before bed, because until she was seven, she just couldn't do without it.

**Cucumber**

Because Minette just has to ask… "Mom, why does the zucchini look like a cucumber?"

**Steel**

Mavra thinks Floyd has the lamest jokes (it's proven when he tries to make a pun of the word "steel") but figures it's a phase he'll grow out of.

**Lovely**

"I like her more than the last one; she's got this air of sort of wild elegance," is what Mimi tells Fidelio when she first meets that actress that dyes her hair funny colours that her brother's dating.

**Magnet**

Felix wonders if some girls are secretly magnets, and Fidelio tells him that it's actually this thing called love.

**Empire**

"With our family, we could build our own little army!"

**Twinkling**

Mimi's three when she finds a pearl at the beach and Fidelio pinches her cheeks and tells her it's almost as shiny as her smile.

**Bitter**

When Minette's seven, she refuses to drink the lemonade, because she thinks it'll taste like the fruit itself.

**Lope**

At fifteen, Mimi just has to ask her brother, "Seriously, do you even know what the word means?"

**Icy**

"Mimi! Be careful!" Fidelio calls out as his youngest sister goes out onto the ice.

**Xylophone**

No matter what instrument they play now, it was always the first one they played.

**Potato**

Felix makes it just in time to stop Fidelio from cutting his finger instead of the food.

**Awe-inspiring**

When Mimi first takes up dance and Felix and Fidelio go to her first recital, all they can do is stare wide-eyed, because no ten-year-old should be able to do _that_.

**Cotton**

Felix has hated cotton every since he was nine, which is why on his nineteenth birthday, Clement just _has_ to get him as much of it as possible.

**Refreshing**

Mimi watches both Felix and Fidelio with brighter smiles than ever, and knows that, as impossible seems, those girlfriends of theirs just might actually be good for them.

**Twisted**

Because it's crazy, and impossible, and feels amazing, and is just so _right_, Felix can't help thinking that it's so twisted she said yes, and finds he just might like twisted.

**Illuminate**

Felix's smile brightens the whole room when his band-mate tells him that they got a record deal.

**Shallow**

Frazer's running as fast as he can to home plate and Foster's hoping he gets to shallow left field.

**Electricity**

When Felix meets a girl named Nina, he sits down with Clement and asks his father if there's supposed to be a shock when they brush past each other.

**Wistful**

Floyd doesn't understand why Mavra asked Foster and Frazer to help her study for a spelling test until one pronounces "wishful" wrong and the other one laughs.

**Solemn**

Chloe and Clement found the house so pensive; then Felix was born.

**Family**

It's Chloe's eighth, and somehow, everyone manages to fit in the hospital room, looking at Mimi, their newest member.

* * *

**A/N: I wrote this right after I wrote chapter 1, just because I have a sad, sad obsession with Fidelio and I'm quite sure Olivia would be very annoyed if she ever met me because of it. I'm just thinking "wow" because this might just be the first multi-chapter story I finish… even if it is supposed to be just about fifty sentences per chapter. Anyway, bye for now!**

**~May**

**Later A/N: I'M SO SORRY FOR NOT UPDATING! Basically, my computer DIED (I'm on my dad's laptop), and I lost half my files, including the one I was supposed to update on Friday, as well as some of my other genre challenge files and some other stories I was writing. I was planning on a double update today, but I didn't have anything to update, so I'm going to have to skip Olivia (sigh), remake the order, and hopefully update on Thursday. That being said, don't cross your fingers. I'm really sorry to the people who are actually reading this.**


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